Schumer to GOP: Agree to Broader Gun Debate or We May Block Bipartisan Bill

With Chuck Schumer leading the way, some Senate Democrats may be open to blocking a bipartisan bill on background checks if Republicans don't agree to debate more gun bills.

By NTK Staff | 02.28.2018 @9:02am

Axios was one of several news outlets to report on Wednesday morning that there’s optimism in the Senate for some legislative action on guns, specifically the bipartisan “Fix NICS” bill co-authored by Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Chris Murphy (D-CT).

The gun debate is still stalled in the Senate, just like the immigration debate stalled out a few weeks ago. But there’s one big difference that could help the gun debate avoid the same fate: This time, there’s a base bill that is pretty popular with both parties.

Politicoreported the engineer of this year’s government shutdown “signaled on Tuesday that his caucus may block the modest bipartisan proposal to improve — but not expand — background checks for gun purchases unless Republicans commit to voting on broader gun control measures.”

The outlet also wrote:

Democratic aides declined to specify which proposals they would insist on considering, but Schumer said his caucus “at a minimum” wants to debate universal background checks — which was filibustered twice in the Senate after the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting despite bipartisan support.

So what Schumer is really saying is that progress on an issue is not worth it if Democrats don’t get everything they want. It also begs a question: does Schumer expect broader bills to pass the Senate, or does he just want to force tough votes in the chamber so he can use those votes in future political campaigns?

Either way, the bipartisan “Fix NICS” bill may stall if Schumer has his way.